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The bestselling international classic on storytelling and visual communication

"You must read this book." — Neil Gaiman

Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is a seminal examination of comics art: its rich history, surprising technical components, and major cultural significance. Explore the secret world between the panels, through the lines, and within the hidden symbols of a powerful but misunderstood art form.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A comic book about comic books. McCloud, in an incredibly accessible style, explains the details of how comics work: how they're composed, read and understood. More than just a book about comics, this gets to the heart of how we deal with visual languages in general. "The potential of comics is limitless and exciting!" writes McCloud. This should be required reading for every school teacher. Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Spiegelman says, "The most intelligent comics I've seen in a long time."

Review

“If you read, write, teach or draw comics; if you want to; or if you simply want to watch a master explainer at work, you must read this book.” (Neil Gaiman)

“McCloud’s masterwork is not just an indispensable treatise on comics, it’s also the best primer around on visual literacy and the mechanics of storytelling. A must-read for anyone interested in narrative of any kind.” (Alison Bechdel)

“Cleverly disguised as an easy-to-read comic book, Scott McCloud’s simple-looking tome deconstructs the secret language of comics while casually revealing secrets of time, space, art and the cosmos! The most intelligent comics I’ve seen in a long time. Bravo.” (Art Spiegelman)

“Reading Understanding Comics blew my teenage mind, and gave me a toolbox full of ideas that I still use today.” (Raina Telgemeier)

“The best analysis of the medium that I have ever encountered.” (Alan Moore)

“BRAVO!! ... A landmark dissection and intellectual consideration of comics as a valid medium. ... Anyone interested in this literary form must read it.” (Will Eisner)

Top customer reviews

This books sort of blew my mind. It was recommended to me by an artist friend, and in a book about making web comics. I will read it again and again and keep it around as my comic bible. I read it all very quickly and it was easy to read. McCloud has amazing insight into art and how to create interesting stories as well as communicate through drawing. Before I read this book, I had never really been exposed to anything like it before. I hope to see him speak some day. He really knows how to explain complex concepts, and inspire others to create!

I've suffered through more Art History classes than I care to recall. They taught me a great deal about what's been done before, but the great questions of why does art exist was largely left to our speculation. Likewise, the practical question of why one would choose one art style over another was always attributed purely to the philosophies of the artists through time, reacting to their environment and the work of the artists before them. This did not imbue me with a great deal of respect for art.

I really wish my Art History teacher had assigned this book. Scott McCloud talks more clearly about what art is, what it's good for, and how it functions effectively than the three semesters of lecture I had about what's gone before. It seems like practitioners of Art History talk about art almost exclusively through writing, but writing is a visual, emotional medium, and you lose a lot approaching it exclusively through text. By writing comics about art, McCloud integrates show and tell in a way that seems like this is how art was always meant to be discussed.

A seminal and indispensable work for anyone involved in the creation or appreciation of sequential art. McCloud's simple but unique idea to write a comic about comics creates a tool through which he can instruct via demonstration rather than simple explanation. You will not regret purchasing this book.

I have to agree with Frank Miller, who is quoted as saying "Scott McCloud is the smartest guy working in comics," or, something like that. I have been a comic fan since the days when Gwen Stacey took a dive off the Brooklyn Bridge. As an artist, I cut my teeth on the works of Neal Adams, Jim Starlin, Mike Grell, and John Buscema -not to mention the greats, Jack Kirby and Will Eisner. But what this guy knows about comics, what they are, what they have been and what they could be, is astounding! This book will make you rethink everything you ever thought you knew about the genre. Great stuff.

I am not sure why I passed this up so many times when I was working at my local college bookstore. There is was sitting on the shelf begging me to look through it. I suppose I thought that either I didn't want the instruction via a book or that the artwork wasn't good enough. Boy how stupid I was.

This is a MUST READ for any aspiring comic book artist. Not just because it informs and explores technique, but it also gives you some real firepower against those who might make the claim that comic book illustration "isn't art" or is "low art". The work McCloud does is masterful in explaining the history of the art and his personal understanding of its expression.

Now that I am a grown ass adult, I finally got my head right and picked it up. Man, was I missing out.

Scott McCloud puts into words (pictures) a standard methodology to looking at or creating comics. Its a great summary of the medium and gives great examples of the medium. He attempts to elevate the comic medium as more than just a children's entertainment with understandable connections. He takes his time to draw out what he means not only with words but images, that work along side each other. He also tries too hard to summarize a large medium, including American and European comics but even tries to explain manga (which he cuts a couple of corners on by adding in only a fraction of the discussion that can be made). But this is a great text to get a general sense of the medium for new time comic readers and even just simply put a logical standard for well versed comic readers.

This engaging guide performs above and beyond the go-to comic reference it's advertised as. It offers relatively deep analysis of visual culture, graphical narrative and the harmonious use of image and content. I read it in a college-level graphic memoir as literature course and found it delivered clear, useful definitions and analogies that were useful for my BFA courses (studio art) as well! I have recommended this book a few times now, not for comic artists or those who aren't sure comics are worthwhile (though it would be great for them as well), but for art students looking to dig deeper into method, concept and conveyance.